Daily Digest: Line 3, drug prices, snow days

Welcome to Wednesday. Get it rolling with your Daily Digest.

1. PUC keeps Line 3 pipeline on track. For now. Minnesota utility regulators have granted their final approval to the contentious Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project. Opponents of the Line 3 project — including the state Commerce Department — petitioned the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to reconsider the approval it gave the project in June. The commission unanimously rejected that request Tuesday. Now the process moves to the courts. Tribes and environmental groups have already sued to overturn the state's approval of the environmental review conducted for Line 3. The Minnesota Court of Appeals held a hearing on that challenge last week. Tribes, environmental groups and the Department of Commerce have filed separate challenges seeking to overturn the PUC's approval of a certificate of need for Line 3. And appeals have also been filed to block the commission's granting of a route permit for the pipeline. (MPR News)

2. Lawmakers consider approaches to trimming drug prices. Claire Henn of St. Paul said the drug she relied on for her rheumatoid arthritis jumped from $60 per treatment to $1,400 per treatment. She went without it for three years until a charity helped pay for the drug. During a state Capitol news conference, Henn said something must be done. "I'm a senior on a low income with a small pension. There's no way I can pay $1,400 a month for treatment," she said. House Democrats want to stop what they see as price gouging by drugmakers. They want more transparency for those companies as well as for pharmacy benefit managers, which administer drug benefits for health plans and employers. Senate Republicans say they have the same goal but are taking a different approach. (MPR News)

3. Walz pitches his prescription for bringing down health care costs. Health care has been a constant source of anxiety for Diane Hanson and her husband, Brad. Last year, purchasing health insurance on the individual market would have cost the Rochester couple, who are in their early 60s, $27,000 a year in premiums, with a $6,000 per-person deductible. That was not sustainable, since it comprised half of the couple’s retirement income. Instead, the Hansons opted to reduce their retirement income to below the 400 percent federal poverty threshold in order to qualify for federal tax credits, which reduced their health care costs.  Diane Hanson’s story of near-crushing health care costs was among a handful told during a health care roundtable hosted by Gov. Tim Walz and Department of Human Services Commissioner Tony Lourey in Rochester. The event was held at Health Access Minnesota in north Rochester. Walz said his proposals will bring down rising prescription drug prices and increase access to coverage and care, while stabilizing the individual health care market. (Rochester Post Bulletin)

4. Schools still shoveling out, figuratively speaking, from mess of snow days. Now that the warmer weather has arrived, Minnesota legislators are still sorting out what to do about the coldest days of 2019. The school snow day relief bill is being finalized. But what was supposed to be a simple fix for lawmakers hasn’t quite been. With the sun shining bright, temperatures forecast to break 60 degrees and the snowbanks quickly disappearing, it’s easy to forget that not long ago even the hardiest Minnesotans were shivering through a polar vortex. School administrators haven’t forgotten. They are still agonizing about what to do with all those days where classes got called off due to extreme cold or heavy snow. The unusually long list of snow days brought them to the Legislature to request a break. “Time is of the essence. We must come to an agreement sooner rather than later,” said Gary Amoroso, who speaks for the state’s superintendents. He was at the Capitol Tuesday to weigh in on negotiations over a bill to let districts write off some or all of their snow days even if it puts them below the state minimum days of instruction. (MPR News)

5. Ellison leads challenge to end of protections for Liberians. Minnesota’s health sector could suffer from a potential worker shortage if President Donald Trump ends long-standing protections for Liberian immigrants, State Attorney General Keith Ellison argued Monday in a legal challenge to the administration’s move. Ellison is leading a coalition of 10 attorneys general attempting to block Trump from ending the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) program, which has helped thousands of Liberians come to the United States to escape civil war since the early 1990s. A group of plaintiffs affected by the decision sued Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen earlier this month, asking Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Timothy for a nationwide preliminary injunction to prevent Trump from ending their legal protections. The administration has set a March 31 termination date for the program. If Trump’s decision stands, Liberians living in the U.S. under the program would have to return to their home country or be subject to deportation. (Star Tribune)

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